If Panasonic (with the help of Kahma Home Improvement Centres) makes and offers the same poor quality items and poor customer service to others, that I was confronted with today , I can understand why the company lost so much money.

The EH-NE13 'ionity' hair dryer purchased 40 days ago, triggered the house electrical safety this morning - cutting all the power to the house, (which is a pain in the ass, as all other the electrical items with clocks etc, had to be reset again)

And as my wife needs a hair dyer each morning, we reluctantly (in pouring rain and 8 deg temps), drove 20 minutes back to the place of purchase of the dryer, being 'Kahma Home Improvement Centre' ,

The young male supervisor (Mr Ando; with still soap behind his ears) behind the service counter tested the hairdryer by JUST turning it on for a few minutes, came back and told us that the unit is OK and it must be the house wiring that was the problem and he will not replace the unit. When he was asked that the unit should be load tested and checked voltage leakage - He just look at me as if I came from another planet, and then just repeated his previous comment to us.

The next contact via the telephone was 'Panasonic Customer Service' which offered sympathy but then advised that we have to take the unit to the 'Panasonic Shizuoka Centre' - which is a good thirty minute drive away FOR TESTING ONLY.

Needless to say, that we won't be doing that, nor will we be returning to 'Kahmah' Home Improvement Centre (which we have spent about $20,000 with last year) AND will never purchase a 'Panasonic' product again.

Some may think that my action is a bit extreme - for just a $50.00 Hair Dryer - But Stuff IT!

Why should I or anyone for that matter, support huge companies like 'Panasonic' and 'Kahmah' when they offer such CRAP customer service!

There's plenty of other businesses that can get my money, e.g Yamada Denki - That have replaced a couple of items that we returned in the past year or so without any question nor any young staff arrogance!

The sad part of this story is that Panasonic Hair Dryers were the only ones available that are not made in China - That was one reason for deciding to buy it. So now we will have to now put money into Chinese Pockets instead of Japanese ones